AgeLab

U.S. News & World Report reporter Coryanne Hicks spotlights MIT AgeLab director Joe Coughlin’s paper which explores how Americans reevaluated their retirement plans as a result of the pandemic.

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, and Luke Yoquinto, a research associate at the AgeLab, emphasize the importance of increased investment in aging-related research in an article for The Boston Globe. Coughlin and Yoquinto call for “ramping up age-related disease research across the board: not just in health care and robotics, but also in smart-home tech, user design, transportation, workplace technologies, education and training, and nutrition. R&D in these fields won’t just improve lives; it will also strengthen tomorrow’s economy.”

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, writes for Forbes about the importance of comprehensive longevity planning. “As younger adults in their 30s, 40s, and 50s today, Millennials and Gen X’ers are catching a glimpse of their possible future selves in their parents aging,” writes Coughlin. “Now is the time to ask how are today’s choices and behaviors defining their older self tomorrow?” 

Mashable reporter Meera Navlakha writes that researchers from the MIT AgeLab have found that when using partially automated driving systems drivers may become less attentive. The researchers found that when using the Autopilot system in Tesla vehicles, “visual behaviour amongst drivers is altered before and after Autopilot is disengaged. That means before the feature is switched on/off, drivers look less on the road and pay more attention to ‘non-driving related areas.’”

A new study by AgeLab researchers finds that drivers may become inattentive when using partially automated driving systems, reports Rebecca Bellan for TechCrunch. Bellan writes that the goal of the study is to “advocate for driver attention management systems that can give drivers feedback in real time or adapt automation functionality to suit a driver’s level of attention.”

Writing for The Boston Globe, research scientist Lisa D’Ambrosio emphasizes how “caregiving faces an innovation gap. Although there is plenty of inventive energy pouring into some caregiving needs, the core tasks of caregiving — the ones requiring the most intensive, even laborious attention — appear to be last in line for a technological helping hand.”

Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, makes the case that society is undergoing a Great Reframing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The pandemic, with far more impact than the Great Recession, has created a new psychosocial equilibrium — a renewed and heightened vigilance and priority to determine what is truly important and to make choices accordingly,” writes Coughlin. “Our view of life has been reframed.”

In an article for The Boston Globe, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, explores how to develop transportation strategies for elders. “When considering the possibilities for elder transportation, it’s important to keep in mind that the needs of seniors are diverse,” writes Coughlin. “One senior might find one innovation helpful but not another. The answer to such a variety of needs may be to think more broadly about what constitutes travel.”

Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, emphasizes the importance of including climate change as part of retirement planning. “Preparing for possible conditions and costs of climate change should now be part of our retirement plan,” writes Coughlin.

Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, explores the question of whether microchip tracking technology could potentially become widely accepted. “Such technology forces us to prioritize the value we assign to personal independence and freedom versus the promise of safety and wellbeing,” writes Coughlin.

Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the Age Lab, explores some of the surprises that Millennials, Gen X’ers, and younger Boomers have learned living at home for an extended period during the Covid-19 pandemic. "While Covid quarantine is certainly not entirely like retirement, there are more than a few similarities,” writes Coughlin. “The friction and complexities it has added to daily life are enough for many to question brochure-based thinking of what retirement might be.”

Wall Street Journal reporter John Anderson spotlights a new PBS special “Fast Forward: Look Into Your Future,” which explores the many facets of aging and was developed with input from researchers at the MIT AgeLab.

In an article for The Boston Globe, AgeLab Director Joseph Coughlin spotlights how the greater Boston area and New England in general have the “potential to become the Longevity Hub: a world-leading driver of innovation for aging populations.”

Writing for The Boston Globe, AgeLab Director Joseph Coughlin and  Research Associate Luke Yoquinto explore how Greater Boston could serve as an innovation hub for aging populations. “By making groundbreaking creativity and inventiveness for older adults both seen and felt, Greater Boston and New England will be able to offer the world a new vision of old age,” they write.

Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the development of new technologies that enable older adults to connect with their communities. “The pandemic has served as a propellant accelerating the adoption of devices and related services perhaps a decade faster than might have otherwise occurred.